Literary linklog | The Guardianhttps://www.theguardian.com/books/series/literary-linklog
Peter Robins rounds up the most interesting, eccentric and intriguing stories elsewhere in the blogosphereen-gbGuardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved. 2017Fri, 18 Aug 2017 03:53:34 GMT2017-08-18T03:53:34Zen-gbGuardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved. 2017The Guardianhttps://assets.guim.co.uk/images/guardian-logo-rss.c45beb1bafa34b347ac333af2e6fe23f.pnghttps://www.theguardian.com
The week on Linkloghttps://www.theguardian.com/books/booksblog/2010/jul/16/1
<p>A selection of the interesting literary titbits that have scrolled by this week on the Linklog widget (it's <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/booksblog">on the right of the books blog</a>, under the most viewed bit), <a href="http://delicious.com/bookslinklog">RSS feed</a> and Twitter feed: </p><p>• Carson McCullers's dream lunch (it involved <a href="http://therumpus.net/2010/07/lunch-with-carson/">champagne, oysters and Marilyn Monroe</a>); first-novel jitters from <a href="http://www.mediabistro.com/galleycat/publicity/susan_sontag_was_once_a_struggling_author_167672.asp?c=rss">Susan Sontag's publisher</a>; Paul the Octopus's <a href="http://www.omnivoracious.com/2010/07/krakens-china-mieville-on-five-underrated-literary-cephalopods.html">more highbrow cousins</a>.</p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/books/booksblog/2010/jul/16/1">Continue reading...</a>BooksCultureFri, 16 Jul 2010 15:14:53 GMThttp://www.theguardian.com/books/booksblog/2010/jul/16/1Peter Robins2010-07-16T15:14:53ZA week in Linkloghttps://www.theguardian.com/books/booksblog/2010/jun/11/1
<p>• Some aspects of writers' characters: Milan Kundera, <a href="http://jennydavidson.blogspot.com/2010/06/i-cannot-use-that-microphone.html">glamorous annoyance</a>; Jim Thompson, <a href="http://bloodandtreasure.typepad.com/blood_treasure/2010/06/filming-thompson.html">weirdo</a>; O Henry, <a href="http://therumpus.net/2010/06/o-henry%E2%80%99s-afterlife-thoughts-and-ephemera/">relic of a less conscribed literary culture</a>.</p><p>• Some embarrassments, which the writers involved may nonetheless find are useful publicity: having your graphic novel version of Ulysses <a href="http://www.thebigmoney.com/blogs/app-economy/2010/06/09/joyce-s-ulysses-banned-again-apple-not-government?page=full">banned on the iPad</a>; having your work <a href="http://mhpbooks.com/mobylives/?p=15789">recommended for National Bathroom Reading Week</a>.</p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/books/booksblog/2010/jun/11/1">Continue reading...</a>BooksCultureFri, 11 Jun 2010 17:28:43 GMThttp://www.theguardian.com/books/booksblog/2010/jun/11/1Peter Robins2010-06-11T17:28:43ZA week in Linkloghttps://www.theguardian.com/books/booksblog/2010/may/21/literary-linklog
<p>When Linklog migrated on to the side of <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/booksblog">the books blog front page</a> – and into <a href="http://delicious.com/bookslinklog">Delicious</a> – a few months back, the plan was to have weekly roundups. This, finally, is the first one. So let's go through some staple categories:</p><p>• Fun with criticism: how F Scott Fitzgerald <a href="http://therumpus.net/2010/05/52542/">got the most out of his first people;</a> John Self on <a href="http://theasylum.wordpress.com/2010/05/19/thomas-bernhard-old-masters/">the funny (or at least tragicomic) side of Thomas Bernhard</a>; a poet's <a href="http://evidenceanecdotal.blogspot.com/2010/05/time-literalist.html">henges</a>; Virginia Woolf, Patricia Highsmith and others <a href="http://wetoowerechildren.blogspot.com/">considered as children's authors</a>; a key to Victorian paperbacks in <a href="http://littleprofessor.typepad.com/the_little_professor/2010/05/the-yellowback-book.html">one short, link-filled paragraph</a>.</p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/books/booksblog/2010/may/21/literary-linklog">Continue reading...</a>BooksCultureFri, 21 May 2010 15:55:00 GMThttp://www.theguardian.com/books/booksblog/2010/may/21/literary-linklogPeter Robins2010-05-21T15:55:00ZLinklog: Habermas delusion, peaceful archivists, and morehttps://www.theguardian.com/books/booksblog/2010/feb/05/1
<p>Jürgen Habermas is not <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2010/feb/02/jurgen-habermas-twitter-philosopher">on Twitter</a> after all. The faker <a href="http://66.102.9.132/search?q=cache:aLtIuk3C_jEJ:twitter.com/jhabermas+habermas+twitter&amp;cd=3&amp;hl=en&amp;ct=clnk&amp;gl=uk&amp;client=firefox-a">appears to have apologised before being deleted</a> (that's a Google cache link, and will stop working). But the form of <a href="http://jonathanstray.com/jurgen-habermas-says-hes-not-on-twitter">his denial to a blogger</a> – 'No, no, no. This is somebody else. This is a mis-use of my name' – would make a great tweet. </p><p>• Macmillan has discovered a new advertising catchline: "<a href="http://mhpbooks.com/mobylives/?p=12413">Available at bookstores everywhere except Amazon</a>". I imagine they'd quite like to drop it soon.</p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/books/booksblog/2010/feb/05/1">Continue reading...</a>BooksCultureFri, 05 Feb 2010 16:38:34 GMThttp://www.theguardian.com/books/booksblog/2010/feb/05/1Peter Robins2010-02-05T16:38:34ZLinklog: Reviewing with cake, uncut classics, and morehttps://www.theguardian.com/books/booksblog/2010/feb/02/1
<p>In the future, <a href="http://mhpbooks.com/mobylives/?p=12293">all book reviews will, like this one, be done with cake</a>. This will present a problem for people who <a href="http://dovegreyreader.typepad.com/dovegreyreader_scribbles/2010/02/on-snippateering.html">like to cut out their favourite reviews and stick them in the front of the book</a>.</p><p>• In the past, it could be very easy to tell that <a href="http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/books/2010/01/1000-words-uncut.html">you hadn't read that exciting new economics treatise</a>.</p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/books/booksblog/2010/feb/02/1">Continue reading...</a>BooksCultureTue, 02 Feb 2010 15:43:27 GMThttp://www.theguardian.com/books/booksblog/2010/feb/02/1Peter Robins2010-02-02T15:43:27ZLinklog: picturing authors, binding Apple, and morehttps://www.theguardian.com/books/booksblog/2010/jan/29/1
<p>Illustrators <a href="http://heyoscarwilde.com/">picture their favourite authors</a> (found via Carolyn Kellogg, who has <a href="http://feeds.latimes.com/~r/JacketCopy/~3/BEKzV5amfFo/clobberin-oscar-wilde.html">nice commentary</a>).</p><p>• Dovegreyreader comes down with <a href="http://dovegreyreader.typepad.com/dovegreyreader_scribbles/2010/01/flush-a-biography-by-virginia-woolf.html">secondhandbooklust</a>.</p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/books/booksblog/2010/jan/29/1">Continue reading...</a>BooksCultureFri, 29 Jan 2010 17:50:20 GMThttp://www.theguardian.com/books/booksblog/2010/jan/29/1Peter Robins2010-01-29T17:50:20ZLinklog: Book piracy, Penguin cannibalism, and morehttps://www.theguardian.com/books/booksblog/2010/jan/25/linklog-book-piracy-penguin
<p>"I do not pretend that uploading or downloading unpurchased electronic books is morally correct, but I do think it is more of a grey area than some of your readers may": <a href="http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/themillionsblog/fedw/~3/L7n6wkBbaoc/confessions-of-a-book-pirate.html">an online book pirate speaks</a>.</p><p>• What kind of person <a href="http://www.bookslut.com/blog/archives/2010_01.php#015637">decides to build a bookshelf out of vintage Penguin paperbacks</a>?</p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/books/booksblog/2010/jan/25/linklog-book-piracy-penguin">Continue reading...</a>BooksCultureMon, 25 Jan 2010 16:29:44 GMThttp://www.theguardian.com/books/booksblog/2010/jan/25/linklog-book-piracy-penguinPeter Robins2010-01-25T16:29:44ZLinklog: Robert B Parker, David Foster Wallace, and morehttps://www.theguardian.com/books/booksblog/2010/jan/22/1
<p>If our <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2010/jan/20/robert-b-parker-obituary">obituary</a> and <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2010/jan/20/robert-b-parker-dies">news story</a> have not sated your appetite for reading about the late Robert B Parker, detective novelist extraordinary, I can recommend <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/books/3671370/Robert-B-Parker-Hard-boiled-old-school-and-yknow-a-bit-sloppy.html">this two-year-old interview by Sam Leith</a> (a big fan) and, to balance it, <a href="http://hilobrow.com/2010/01/20/rbp-rip/">this note of scepticism from Joshua Glenn</a>.</p><p>Hamish Hamilton's PDF literary magazine Five Leaves has <a href="http://fivedials.com/fivedials">an issue-long tribute to David Foster Wallace, featuring Zadie Smith and Jonathan Franzen</a>. (I found it <a href="http://twitter.com/maudnewton/statuses/8072266355">via Maud Newton's Twitter-feed, which provides a cheeky subscription-evading link</a>.)</p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/books/booksblog/2010/jan/22/1">Continue reading...</a>CultureFri, 22 Jan 2010 17:37:30 GMThttp://www.theguardian.com/books/booksblog/2010/jan/22/1Peter Robins2010-01-22T17:37:30ZLinklog: Angry Susan Hill, prize smackdown, and morehttps://www.theguardian.com/books/booksblog/2010/jan/20/1
<p>A proposal for an anonymous exhibition of short stories, mixing amateurs and big names, <a href="http://www.spectator.co.uk/susanhill/5714598/no-amateurs-are-not-just-as-good-as.thtml">has made Susan Hill very, very angry</a>. It sounds like a literary version of the Royal College of Art's <a href="http://dams.rca.ac.uk/res/sites/RCA_Secret/">RCA Secret</a> postcard sale, which so far as I know doesn't generate any great outrage among artists. But when the names behind the works are revealed there, Tracey Emin has the comfort of knowing that her work will re-sell for a lot of money; order will be restored. Hill is offered no such comfort.</p><p>• Still making money from literature: <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/19/books/19sherlock.html?ref=books&amp;pagewanted=all">the owners of the copyright in Sherlock Holmes</a>. Oh, and the people who claim to own it but don't. Whichever those turn out to be.</p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/books/booksblog/2010/jan/20/1">Continue reading...</a>BooksCultureSusan HillWed, 20 Jan 2010 16:20:51 GMThttp://www.theguardian.com/books/booksblog/2010/jan/20/1Peter Robins2010-01-20T16:20:51ZLinklog: Furnishing rooms, profiling Neil Gaiman, and morehttps://www.theguardian.com/books/booksblog/2010/jan/18/1
<p>"I no longer associate the possession of vast quantities of books with intelligence, discernment or culture – sometimes the owner is <a href="http://www.bookride.com/2010/01/books-do-furnish-room.html">a maniac or even a book dealer</a>." Nigel Burwood of Bookride (a book dealer himself) considers an interior designer's guide to personal libraries.</p><p>• Neil Gaiman's journey into the cultural mainstream continues with a lengthy, if also gently sniffy, profile in the New Yorker; it begins with something I didn't know about <a href="http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2010/01/25/100125fa_fact_goodyear?currentPage=1">Coraline's nastier Victorian ancestors</a>.</p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/books/booksblog/2010/jan/18/1">Continue reading...</a>Neil GaimanBooksCultureMon, 18 Jan 2010 16:57:34 GMThttp://www.theguardian.com/books/booksblog/2010/jan/18/1Peter Robins2010-01-18T16:57:34ZLinklog: The anti-list list, televised Nabokov, and morehttps://www.theguardian.com/books/booksblog/2010/jan/15/1
<p>Five reasons to <a href="http://americanfiction.wordpress.com/2010/01/14/listing/">stop with the lists already</a>.</p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/books/booksblog/2010/jan/15/1">Continue reading...</a>BooksCultureFri, 15 Jan 2010 15:19:05 GMThttp://www.theguardian.com/books/booksblog/2010/jan/15/1Peter Robins2010-01-15T15:19:05ZLinklog: Cereal fiction, The Road's prose, and morehttps://www.theguardian.com/books/booksblog/2010/jan/13/1
<p>Irish cereals: now fortified with vitamins, iron <a href="http://feeds.latimes.com/~r/JacketCopy/~3/GhDt-YNS4-A/cereal-books.html">and literature</a>.</p><p>• Steven Poole has <a href="http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Unspeak/~3/HS9gPB1nTbs/">some problems</a> with the prose of The Road.</p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/books/booksblog/2010/jan/13/1">Continue reading...</a>BooksCultureWed, 13 Jan 2010 13:56:30 GMThttp://www.theguardian.com/books/booksblog/2010/jan/13/1Peter Robins2010-01-13T13:56:30ZLinklog: Ogden Nash, designer zombies, and morehttps://www.theguardian.com/books/booksblog/2010/jan/08/1
<p>The mystery of <a href="http://www.languagehat.com/archives/003739.php">free verse</a>.</p><p>• <a href="http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/books/2010/01/poetry-archives-ogden-nash-in-the-new-year.html">Ogden Nash</a> in the New Yorker.</p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/books/booksblog/2010/jan/08/1">Continue reading...</a>BooksCultureZombiesFri, 08 Jan 2010 17:56:22 GMThttp://www.theguardian.com/books/booksblog/2010/jan/08/1Peter Robins2010-01-08T17:56:22ZLinklog: Enemies of books, sex and the modern male novelist, and morehttps://www.theguardian.com/books/booksblog/2010/jan/06/1
<p><a href="http://www.bookride.com/2010/01/enemies-of-books.html">Enemies of Books catalogued</a> – mine, I can say with some assurance, are definitely safe from housemaids and overzealous binders.</p><p>• In defence of <a href="http://americanfiction.wordpress.com/2010/01/05/wuss-1-0/">the manliness of contemporary American authors</a>.</p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/books/booksblog/2010/jan/06/1">Continue reading...</a>BooksCultureWed, 06 Jan 2010 15:47:16 GMThttp://www.theguardian.com/books/booksblog/2010/jan/06/1Peter Robins2010-01-06T15:47:16ZLinklog: Designer chapbooks, free ebooks, and morehttps://www.theguardian.com/books/booksblog/2010/jan/04/1
<p>Poets <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/booksblog/2008/sep/02/theneedforchapbooks">may not always have kept up with the festive chapbook tradition</a>, but <a href="http://www.wallpaper.com/art/pentagram-christmas-cards/4181">architects have run with it</a>.</p><p>• Scott McLemee on <a href="http://www.artsjournal.com/quickstudy/2009/12/of_a_certain_blockheadedness.html">the stubborn desire to write for money</a>.</p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/books/booksblog/2010/jan/04/1">Continue reading...</a>BooksCultureMon, 04 Jan 2010 14:30:19 GMThttp://www.theguardian.com/books/booksblog/2010/jan/04/1Peter Robins2010-01-04T14:30:19ZLinklog: Top covers, Kindle hack, and morehttps://www.theguardian.com/books/booksblog/2009/dec/23/1
<p>The Book Design Review blog's <a href="http://nytimesbooks.blogspot.com/2009/12/my-favorites-of-2009.html">covers of the year</a>.</p><p>• How one magazine <a href="http://www.mediabistro.com/galleycat/lit_crit/party_with_swimsuit_models_and_support_the_paris_review_146551.asp?c=rss">can raise money for another</a>.</p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/books/booksblog/2009/dec/23/1">Continue reading...</a>BooksCultureWed, 23 Dec 2009 17:26:07 GMThttp://www.theguardian.com/books/booksblog/2009/dec/23/1Peter Robins2009-12-23T17:26:07ZLinklog: Bible theft, slippery Dickens, and morehttps://www.theguardian.com/books/booksblog/2009/dec/21/1
<p>Kind American readers: your most stolen book is, apparently, <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/20/books/review/Rabb-t.html?_r=2&amp;partner=rss&amp;emc=rss">the Bible</a>; while ours, as noted on this site before, <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2009/jan/18/1000-novels-top-10-most-stolen-books">is a street directory</a>. Who should envy who?</p><p>• On <a href="http://www.thesmartset.com/article/article12080901.aspx">the slippery greatness of A Christmas Carol</a>. (The negative side of the argument seems to me overdone, but the positive bit is acute.)</p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/books/booksblog/2009/dec/21/1">Continue reading...</a>BooksCultureMon, 21 Dec 2009 19:51:22 GMThttp://www.theguardian.com/books/booksblog/2009/dec/21/1Peter Robins2009-12-21T19:51:22ZLinklog: Meaningful gifts, Karl Marx on Ayn Rand, and morehttps://www.theguardian.com/books/booksblog/2009/dec/18/1
<p>• If you're giving books as gifts, <a href="http://feeds.ew.com/~r/entertainmentweekly/shelf-life/~3/vCpBDSvqGak/">do you have to play nice</a>?</p><p>• The novels of Ayn Rand <a href="http://www.thenational.ae/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20091217/REVIEW/712179984/1200/ART">as a fulfilment the predictions of the Communist Manifesto</a>.</p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/books/booksblog/2009/dec/18/1">Continue reading...</a>BooksCultureKarl MarxAyn RandFri, 18 Dec 2009 16:18:46 GMThttp://www.theguardian.com/books/booksblog/2009/dec/18/1Peter Robins2009-12-18T16:18:46ZLinklog: The punctuation of David Foster Wallace, and Natalie Portman as Zombie Elizabeth Bennethttps://www.theguardian.com/books/booksblog/2009/dec/16/1
<p>On <a href="http://americanfiction.wordpress.com/2009/12/16/finger-flexion-redux/">David Foster Wallace's use of "scare quotes"</a>, and <a href="http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/ConversationalReading/~3/oDu4GRf3DPo/on-editing-dfw.html">the experience of editing him</a>.</p><p>• Joke-that-keeps-rising-from-the-grave department: Pride and Prejudice and Zombies is going to be a film, <a href="http://www.mediabistro.com/galleycat/adaptation/pride_and_prejudice_and_zombies_headed_to_movie_theaters_146130.asp?c=rss">starring Natalie Portman</a>.</p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/books/booksblog/2009/dec/16/1">Continue reading...</a>CultureNatalie PortmanWed, 16 Dec 2009 15:57:53 GMThttp://www.theguardian.com/books/booksblog/2009/dec/16/1Peter Robins2009-12-16T15:57:53ZLinklog: Award-winning spines, Gutenberg's designers, and morehttps://www.theguardian.com/books/booksblog/2009/dec/14/1
<p>Challenges of book design, number 3,847: can you make that award-winning tome <a href="http://nytimesbooks.blogspot.com/2009/12/but-if-we-were-looking-at-spines-this.html">fat enough to fit the award logos on the spine</a>?</p><p>• Challenges of book design, number one: finding a format to work with <a href="http://blog.eyemagazine.com/?p=385">that fancy new "movable type"</a>.</p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/books/booksblog/2009/dec/14/1">Continue reading...</a>BooksCultureMon, 14 Dec 2009 15:28:34 GMThttp://www.theguardian.com/books/booksblog/2009/dec/14/1Peter Robins2009-12-14T15:28:34Z